Violence + Soccer = Argentina

When my dad told me that soccer rivals in Argentina always led to violence, I didn't believe him because it seemed ridiculous that fans could be so intense they would try to hurt the other team. He told me that when he was in Argentina for a business trip, he witnessed fights between rival teams fans and that him and his co-workers had to leave a restaurant one night because of it. I was also hesitant to believe that if you were at the same bar or restaurant as a fan of your rival team, one of you had to leave. But, after reading In Argentina, Violence is Part of the Soccer Culture, my doubts have been proven true. Argentina soccer fans take a rival such as the Red Sox and Yankees to a level no other country has reached before. After a tough loss, the soccer club San Lorenzo de Almargo immediately went to practice their skills. However, while practicing, three fans of the club slipped passed security guards and attacked some of the clubs team members...because they lost the game! A few star players were badly hurt by the attacks and were horrified to know that is how they're fans thought of them. Fans of both the home and visiting teams in Argentina have made the stadiums unsafe to attend. Families are no longer bringing their children to games because it is too much of a risk. There has been a decrease in ticket sales because fans are afraid they will be the target of a barra brava. A barra brava is a group of fans who strongly support their team, when they are winning. For a living, they are generally scalpers or drug dealers. They are not ashamed of themselves and they feel that violence is an important part of the soccer culture. However, they have scared other fans and even the players themselves. A parent of young children said, "“Every day it is harder to go to the stadiums with your kids to see the games... It seems like the quality of soccer is getting worse every day." A popular soccer player in Argentina Jonathan Bottinelli admitted that he was afraid of the barra bravas, “I am a little nervous, a little tense about what we had to go through...We have to live with this in soccer.”


Alexei Barrionuevo and Charles Newbery co-wrote the article In Argentina, Violence is Part of the Soccer Culture. They used logos to describe some of the attacks that the barra brava committed against opposing fans and players. They hi-lighted the one instance where Bottinelli was beat up by members of a barra brava and how when other players on Bottinelli's team tried to stop the barra brava, they were attacked as well. Barrionueveo and Newbery's use of logos were successful in proving that soccer has turned into a violent sport in Argentina. They also used pathos when describing Bottinelli's fear of the barra brava. I think it is important that they interviewed him for his true feelings because it gave their audience a true connected to the incidents. They also used pathos when interviewing parents whose children wanted to attend soccer games in Argentina but couldn't because of the violence. The tremendous use of pathos brought their audience in because it caused us to feel bad for the victims of the barra brava. Pathos also proved that violence was a true problem and that everyone was affected by it because it has become a way of life in Argentina.  Barrionuevo and Newbery were successful with both logos and pathos in connecting with their audience. Hopefully one day the violence in Argentina will cease and soccer will return as a family sport again. 


In Argentina, Violence is Part of the Soccer Culture by Alexei Barrionuevo and Charles Newbery
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/sports/soccer/in-argentina-violence-is-part-of-the-soccer-culture.html?pagewanted=1&ref=soccer

Serving up more than just waffles down south

In the south, Waffle House is like a Dunkin Donuts up north, they are everywhere and everyone goes to them...all the time. So it is no surprise that customers at Waffle House come from all different backgrounds, cultures, and religions but the recent string of criminals and terrorists that have stopped by for some waffles were definitely unexpected. There are over 1,600 Waffle Houses across the south and over the past summer for three straight weeks, many have been full of crime. At a few Georgia and Atlanta locations, two men repeatedly placed take-out orders, waited for the food to cook, and then arrived at the Waffle House and held up the cashier demanding all of the cash. The two suspects of that crime were arrested but the crimes still continued. At a Waffle House in Georgia, four elderly men were arrested for plotting terrorist attacks in Atlanta. The FBI surveillance tapes had caught the men in their frequent meetings at a specific Waffle House where they planned the attack. When a Florida state representative suggested that the death penalty be carried our by electrocuting or having a firing squad to kill the inmates, he said that he heard of the idea from a constituent...at a Waffle House. The remainder of the crimes committed at Waffle Houses were armed robberies. However, in one Waffle House, a fugitive and bank robber were caught. Because of the recent crimes, Waffle House opened up a museum dedicated to the chain restaurant to show customers they are not crime-ridden, just unlucky. Many people have began to doubt the safety of Waffle Houses but the customers interviewed in this article vowed to remain loyal customers.

Robbie Brown, the author of At Waffle Houses, a Side of Drama With Breakfast, used a tremendous amount of logos when presenting information about the crimes committed at or involving Waffle Houses. Brown used statistics referring to the amount of Waffle Houses affected by the crimes and included information released by the police who were involved in the cases. He also used pathos when he included statements from true customers of Waffle House, “Nah,” she said. “We’ll keep coming to Waffle House. We’re not that worried.” He defended Waffle House with support from their customers and their business representatives. All of the input Brown received was positive, the customers were not afraid of a few crimes. A spokeswomen from Waffle House said that she strongly believed that they did not have any more crimes than other 24 hour chains did. Brown also appeared to believe in Waffle House because he did not include any negative comments towards their recent struggles. As Bostonians "run on Dunkin", Southerners live on Waffles.


At Waffle Houses, a Side of Drama With Breakfast by Robbie Brown
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/us/at-waffle-houses-a-side-of-drama-with-breakfast.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB

"That's Elmo's World!"

When thinking of Elmo, typically the first thing that comes to mind is a small, red, and furry monster that is loved by children. However, rarely do we consider how Elmo talks or even moves. Kevin Clash joined the cast of Sesame Street in 1984. It had been a dream of his since he was younger to work with the Muppets. So, when Clash was invited to join the Sesame Street float in the Macy's Day parade, he knew being a puppeteer was his true calling. Originally, he aimed to work only with muppets but he was extremely happy to be offered a job as Elmo,“I knew that Elmo should represent love,’’ he says, “just kissing and hugging’’ - that transformed the character from sideman (sideMuppet?) to superstar". Clash enjoys playing such a lovable and fun character and likes to entertain his audience.


Mark Feeney, the author of this article, praised Clash for his successes in life. He applauds Clash for following his dreams of become a puppeteer in one of the biggest puppet businesses to exist. Feeney also promotes Elmo's new movie, Being Elmo: A Puppeteers Journey. His use of pathos helps to show the true happiness in Clash and includes his many triumphs. Feeney also includes how much Clash truly loves his job. Clash attends promotional tours that he is not required to be at and is always motivating his audience. Hopefully Clash will remain in the puppet business for the future years to come as there is no one who could make a better Elmo.




The Man Behind Elmo

http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2011/11/16/meet_kevin_clash_the_man_behind_elmo_in_new_documentary/?p1=Upbox_links

Bye Bye Jerry Sandusky

I know that all of you have heard about the Jerry Sandusky scandal but you may not have known that Jerry himself organized a charity...for children! I was shocked to read that he has been involved with the Second Mile charity for over 34 years. Second Mile aims to help children of Pennsylvania, especially those in need, to help promote "self-confidence, as well as physical, academic, and personal success" according to thesecondmile.org. As you may have expected, members of the organization are now questioning the cause  and focus of the organization. After being the CEO for 28 years, Jack Raykovitz has resigned from his position. According to a grand jury report, Sandusky is reported to have molested young boys that he met through Second Mile. Aside from being involved with Second Mile, Sandusky and his wife also participated in the Fresh Air Fund. The Fresh Air Fund "sends inner-city children to volunteer families" (cnn.com). Because children of the Fresh Air Fund have not reported any problems with Sandusky, representatives are contacting families to search for details. Sandusky also lives right next to an elementary school and his backyard connects to the schools playground. The elementary school has been much more cautious of their children at recess time and are taking the proper steps to ensure the children's safety.

It appeared that the authors of this article, Mary Snow and Josh Levs were horrified at the Sandusky trial. I was also horrified to read that this has been going on since 1994...17 years have gone by and now they decide to investigate? Former Penn State students reported Sandusky to head coach Joe Paterno who proceeded to do nothing about it. Paterno was also fired due to the Sandusky trial. When interviewed, Sandusky's neighbors commented that they were upset about the scandal but could not decide if they were expressing more anger or sadness towards the situation. What I think is most upsetting is the fact that this has never been reported to the proper level of authorities. It upsets me that Sandusky remained involved in charity organization for under privileged children. I agree with the authors point of view in that it is ridiculous that a crime as serious as this has slipped under the radar for so long.

Head of Youth Charity Founded by Sandusky Resigns
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/14/us/pennsylvania-coach-abuse/index.html?hpt=us_c2

"The Memory Keeper's Daughter"

While looking for an outside reading book, I scrolled through Ms. Fay's blog to see if there would be anything I was interested. After contemplating a few titles, I settled on "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" by Kim Edwards. Set in the mid 1900's Edwards begins her novel with the birth of twins, a boy and a girl. The mother of the twins, Norah Henry decided last minute on names, Paul for a boy and Phoebe for a girl. Her husband, David Henry, delivered the unexpected twins. While he was no specialist, he realizes right away that their daughter, Phoebe had Down's syndrome. He makes the split-second decision to give up Phoebe, he handed her to his nurse, Caroline Gill and ordered her to take the baby to an institution. David simply told Norah that their daughter had died at birth. Norah's then fell into Post-Pardom Depression. The remainder of the novel followed the ups and downs of the Henry family. However, it also told the story of Caroline Gill. Caroline had gone to the institution to drop off Phoebe but when she saw how awful the conditions were, she could not bring herself to leave an innocent bay there. She left town with Phoebe and raised her to become a wonderful young women. However, Norah remained miserable and she fought with David often, they barely spoke to each other. Their son, Paul, had a difficult childhood because he strived to impress his parents with his musical talents but Norah was not always interested and David was too focused on reconnecting with Phoebe. David's secret tore the family into two and they were never able to recover. Norah had multiple affairs and eventually they ended their marriage with divorce. Shortly after the divorce, David died from a heart attack. Happily living in Paris at the time with her fiance, Norah was just as shocked as Caroline Gill to hear the news. Norah returned to the house she once shared with David to pack up his belongings and while she was cleaning, Caroline Gill knocked on the door. Caroline told Norah everything that David had been keeping from her all those years and most importantly, how Phoebe was doing. After taking some time to react to the news, Norah and Paul visited Phoebe in an effort to make up for all their lost time. The novel ended with Norah living in Paris but with plans for Phoebe to visit her and Paul moved to Cleveland in an effort to spend more time with Phoebe. While the ending was expected, there were many twists and turns throughout the whole novel that attempted to mislead you.


Before I read "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" I knew it was going to be a sad novel. Kim Edwards immense use of detail created a sad and depressing tone to the novel which set the true scene of Norah Henry's life. Edward's intense focus on the characters' emotions helped to depict each individual feeling of each character. The strong use of character description helped the characters tell the story even though it was told from a third person point of view. Edwards also used a lot of imagery which helped her audience feel like they were a part of the story. Her use of imagery not only created the scenery but it also showed how certain surroundings affected a characters feelings at that time. Throughout the whole novel, Edwards used pathos. It was easy to tell the emotions of all of her characters but it was especially easy to determine the feelings of Norah, David, and Caroline. Edwards continually described the conflicting feelings of Norah and David and the nervous feelings of Caroline. Her description of feelings and emotions always set the tone for the scene and added drama and intensity to the novel. Although there was a happy ending, this was a very dark novel to read. It was upsetting to me that babies born with disabilities were given no chance to prove themselves and it horrified me to know that places such as "institutions" existed less than 4o years ago. I was disgusted to read how people treated Phoebe and those like her but was overjoyed when Caroline began to make a difference. With each setback in the novel, Edwards always seemed to introduce a new opportunity to improve the situation. I think that Edwards is a talented writer and is able to adapt her styles to fit the intensity of the novel. I enjoyed reading "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" however for my next outside reading book I hope to chose one with a more upbeat theme.

Thank You For Your Service

With Veteran's Day just around the corner I felt it was appropriate to blog about soldier. Navy Lt. Florence Bcong Choe was only 35 years old when she was killed in Afghanistan. While on a run one morning with three other U.S service members, and Afgan soldier open-fired at the group killing Choe immediately. She was so young, so innocent. She did not deserve to be killed at such a young age or in such a horrific way. In fact, no one deserves that. Florence was simply following in her fathers footsteps and she dreamed of making a difference in the world but sadly her time was cut much too short. Her daughter, Kristin, who was three years old at the time of her death was too young to wrap her head around everything. But now, at age five, Kristin is accepting the fact that "mommy's in heaven" and she believes she will see her one day. Florence's husband and Kristin's father, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Chong "Jay" Choe is still recovering and thinks about his wife every single day. At the time of Florence's death, Jay was working at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego. He was called into his admiral's office one day out of the blue and Jay's first words to his admiral were, "I'm sorry for whatever I did." Jay was unaware that his admiral had the sad news of his wife's death. Now, as a loving and single father to Kristin, he tries his best to give her the best life possible, without a mother. 


Author Wayne Drash thoughtfully approached this article and was very compassionate in areas such as describing her death and how her family is healing. His use of pathos helped him connect with his audience, and his audience with the subject. This article was definitely a "tear jerker." I think that his overwhelming use of emotions help to prove that he is anti-war. I have been fortunate enough to not have gone through that awful tragedy but the detail and emotion Drash included made me seem like I was a part of the story. He includes the feelings and thoughts of Jay, "To this day, I would give anything in this world to go back to that moment and to have gone to the ticket counter to get the special pass so that we could escort her all the way to the gate, to have those few last minutes together," Choe said. "I will never forgive myself for that." Jay reflects back to the last time he saw Florence. He was dropping her at the airport for her deployment and she insisted that he stayed back with Kristin. Kristin is his pride and joy of life and that overcomes his grief. So, this Veteran's Day, please keep in mind all of our soldiers, from the past and present, and those who have gone before us. 

Moving on when mom is killed at war
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/08/us/cnnheroes-war-widower/index.html?hpt=wo_bn3

Soon to be Twenty and Counting...

20. The amount of children in an average classroom. 20. The worth of one twenty dollar bill. 20. Should not be the amount of children born into one family! Just this morning, proud parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar announced that they were expecting their twentieth child. Their popular t.v show, 19 kids and counting stays true to its name. Soon to become 20 kids and counting, Jim Bob and Michelle could not be happier about their newest addition. However, there have been no comments on how their other 19 children feel, including a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren. Their children currently range from age 23 years to 23 months. In order of age, these are the Duggar children: "Joshua, 23 (who is married to Anna, 23 and has two children, Mackynzie, 2 and Michael, 4 months), twins Jana and John-David, 21; Jill, 20; Jessa, 19; Jinger, 17; Joseph, 16; Josiah, 15; Joy-Anna, 14; twins Jedidiah and Jeremiah, 12; Jason, 11; James, 10; Justin, 8; Jackson, 7; Johanna, 6; Jennifer, 4; and Jordyn, 3, and Josie, 1 1/2." (cnn.com) As you may have noticed, all of the names start with a "j" and Josh's children appear to be following a similar theme with the letter "m." While we are used to the abnormally large size of the Duggar family, this announcement came as a bit of a sock especially because of the trauma both Michelle and baby Josie went through with her last birth. I think that a sane person would know they had enough children when their previous baby was born prematurely weighing only 1 lb. 60z. 

Actually, I think an even saner person would have stopped having children before their family sized reached double-digits. I come from a family of seven, with four younger brothers, which in these days is a large family. Because of the numerous activities my brothers and I participate in, we spend our days running around trying to complete all the necessary tasks without taking a breather. My mom gave up her job as a nurse to be a stay-at-home mom because she felt that was the best thing to do for our family but very rarely does she have time for herself. Along with the rest of America, I have no idea how Michelle manages to homeschool ALL of her children, make meals, do laundry, go shopping, clean the house, help with music lessons, and dedicate an equal amount of time to each of her children. I think that the author of this article, Alicia Dennis, questions Michelle's pregnancy. While Dennis appears to be happy about the soon to be newest addition to the Duggar clan, she also appears worried about Michelle and the baby's health. Because of Michelle's previous pregnancy, Dennis feels that Jim Bob and Michelle should have none when enough was enough. In her article, she dedicates an entire section to "Questions about the pregnancy". Michelle and Jim-Bob appeared very confident about the upcoming birth and revealed that she will have a C-section in hopes of preventing any complications. So for now, I say good luck to the Duggars and hope that their newest baby is healthy and happy, as well as the rest of the family. 

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar: "We're Expecting Again!"

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/08/showbiz/celebrity-news-gossip/duggars-expecting-20th-child-ppl/

Facebook Faults

More and more these days we are seeing younger children on Facebook. It is shocking to see that children as young as ten years old are joining the popular social network. According to author Brandon Griggs, there are 7.5 million children and teens under age 13 on Facebook, even though there is a rule that prohibits children under age 13 on Facebook. The sad part is not that children under age are on Facebook, it's the fact that their parents are helping them join. 95% of parents who have children under age on Facebook were not only aware that they joined, they helped them sign up. They defend their decision of allowing such young children join was that they can connect to family members and it introduces them to the world on online communication.


Personally, I agree with Griggs in that children under 13 are too young to be on Facebook. I understand their wants of connecting with family members they rarely see but there are better ways to communicate than through online chats. There are ads and themes on Facebook that are not always appropriate for younger children. However, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said "that children younger than 13 should be allowed on his service because interacting online is an important part of today's educational process." Parents are then torn as to what they should do because of the strong arguments on both sides so in the end it comes down to a personal decision. I think that elementary school children have no business being on Facebook when they can be outside and socializing face to face with friends. Hopefully, the rest of the world will realize that as well. 


Parents Help Kids Lie to Get on Facebook, Study Finds
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/01/tech/social-media/underage-facebook-parents-study/index.html?hpt=us_c2

Bye-Bye "Food Desserts"

As I was scrolling through the business section of the New York Times, my mouse slid over an article titled, "A Start-Up Tries to Eliminate 'Food Deserts'". Originally, I thought the article was about desserts, so I immediately clicked to see why on earth a company would try to get rid of food desserts. Primarily desserts are made up of foods such a yummy baked goods that are loved by all so I was shocked to see that people would want to get rid of them. In concern for our delicious desserts, I read closely to the article, including the title again, only to find that it was talking about "food deserts". Whoops. I was then intrigued as to what a food desert was and according to the article, it is a place such as a town or community that has limited access to healthy and affordable groceries. According to the Department of Agriculture, there are more than 23 million U.S citizens who live in towns considered to be "food desserts". In response to that horrifying statistic, former classmates and friends Carrie Ferrence, 33, and Jacqueline Gjurgevich, 32 founded Stockbox, a very small grocery store based out of a shipping container. The majority of their items sold consist of juice, milk, meat, dairy, and produce. They carry items that are generally out of reach and out of budget for those living in food deserts. 

Founders Ferrence and Gjurgevich aim to provide healthier options at cheaper prices for residents in food deserts. They want those families to be able to provide their children with healthier options that a convenience store provides. While they do struggle to attract first time customers because of the store appearance, Stockbox has been very successful. Author, Jessica Bruder, compliments the founders on creating a store like Stockbox and agrees that all citizens, especially young children, need to be fed healthy foods. Stockbox allows families to get by without a mainstream grocery store located in their neighborhood and to fit their meals in a budget. 

A Start-Up Tries to Eliminate ‘Food Deserts’

http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/a-start-up-tries-to-eliminate-food-deserts/?ref=business